By ADAM RAY AND ANNA CHALMERS

A New Zealander living in Thailand has been shot dead while riding a scooter in the street.


Two people have been arrested over the death of Stephen Miller, but Thai police said the person who carried out the killing was still at large.

Several motives for murdering the former Waikanae man have been suggested in Thailand's media, including the possibility it was related to a previous conviction for importing steroids.

Mr Miller, 39, was killed last Thursday morning while travelling to a gym in the resort city of Pattaya, 150 kilometres south of Bangkok.

He worked in real estate and had lived in Thailand for three years.

Police identified Mr Miller from a New Zealand drivers' licence that he was carrying.

A Foreign Affairs Ministry spokeswoman said Thai police had arrested a man and a woman. A third person, believed to have carried out the shooting, was being sought.

Family members have flown to Thailand but it was not known when Mr Miller's body would be returned to New Zealand. The Millers have asked for their privacy to be respected in the meantime.

A Kiwi policeman based at the New Zealand embassy in Bangkok had met police officers investigating the killing.

The Pattaya City News said witnesses saw two men on a motorbike pull up next to Mr Miller before the passenger, who was wearing a hooded jacket, shot him in the head.

It reported Mr Miller had four Thai wives and that he had been embroiled in a court dispute with one of them over property ownership.

The resort town newspaper said Mr Miller also had a previous conviction for illegally taking steroids into New Zealand.

Police were investigating whether the murder was related to that case, to Mr Miller's links with the property market, or the court case with his fourth wife, whom police have yet to identify, its website reported.

Thai police could not be contacted for comment.

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